How did you get started in model railroading?

[TallDude]

Figured I'd bump this to the top since its been a while.. Feel free to add your story.

[Mid-MO Waycar]

Mine started with a mid 60's TYCO CB&Q F-7 set on the bedroom floor....tile, not carpet.....I've been ruined ever since....used to ride the C&EI with Mom from Chgo Dearborn to KY and back.....man I miss those days...
Ted

[scratchbldr]

Man! This question has made me go back over almost my entire 67 years for the answer & It's a bit convoulted.
First off I have been a model builder since my first attempt at 5 or 6. I tried to build a 10cent comet Airplane kit -- an Eracoupe. I never finished it mostly because I was trying to cut the parts out of the printed Balsa sheet with the only razor blade I had access to, my dads DOUBLE edged Gillette!
The first thing I built for a train was when I was about 7 & had a Marx train set -- Lionel was too expensive for us, I had a Lionel catalog tho!
In that catalog were two things I thought were pretty spiffy an airport beacon with a rotating lens on top of a light bulb, the other was a Crane mounted on a swivel pedestal , couldn't get anyone to buy them for me so I built copies of them both in balsa , some from the ill fated Comet Kit, by now I had found out about single edged blades.
When I was about 8 we moved & the train got left behind. I moved from that into Balsa airplanes , loved the old Monogram Speedebuilts did all of them, then came freeflight , control line & RC. Somewhere about 57 or so Plastic car kits began to appear , now I never liked plastic airplanes , but cars were different, I tried a wood car kit once --- what a mess even well done they did not look good! So I pretty well ended up building 1/25 cars -- mostly hot rods & customs , along with a few RC planes. Still I felt something was missing- I saw many things in everyday life that begged to be modeled but , what would I do with it -- didn't fit with the cars or the planes soooo.
By now I'm 40 something & have a son coming up on 7 at Christmas, my wife decided that he had to have a train set, off I go to Grand Central stores ( remember them?--- a 70's walmart) They have a sale on TYCO stuff ( Mantua) I went nuts cause it was 75 % off or something like that. So I get a potfull 6-8 steam locos --some War Bonnets-- a raft of rolling stock & all that goes with it.
Turned out my son had less than zero interest in trains so in the attic they went .
Cleaning out the attic a few years later I came across them & the LIGHT finally DAWNED , Model Railroading was THE PERFECT HOBBY for a guy that liked to build models!! Whereas with cars or airplanes that was about all you could do , BUT with trains ANYTHING you had a fancy to build could be part of the WHOLE !! I have never tired of it since then. Nice to have the whole world be your prototype. Sorry this is so long but there it is.

Yes , I still have some of the Mantua steam ( tricked out , detailed & remotored ) but the rest has long since gone as I moved up in quality, & started Scratchbuilding my own models.

[domiluk]

What a great day. My wife bought me a train set for Christmas in 1995 that was the day she has regretted ever scenes I was like a little boy in a candy store i started with a a 4x8 the I bought a 12x 20 building and about 4 years latter the building was full so we sold the house and moved to were we live now this place had a steel building on it so I bought it and this is were I have my layout now And I hate to say it but It's full and I want more I won't say how mush I've spent on railroad stuff because my lovely wife might see this . But I said like a kid in a candy store and the store is not empty yet.

[BostonMBTA2008]

Well im literally just starting out in this. So I guess I am the baby of the bunch here lol

[hoscalemodeler1967]

i've wanted to get into them since i was a kid, and did have a toy set then. but , if it wouldn't have been for the more than generous"gold mine" i landed, i probably still wouldn't be into them due to cost. however, i am now fully addicted, and can't get enough of the scratchbuilding,and every other aspect that this great hobby has to offer.

[Eastern Roads]

My fascination started when as a rugrat, Dad would haul out the Lionels and put them around the Christmas Tree. That was pretty great, but the HO scale stuff had me over the edge with the NH passenger train with matching locos, or, the CB&Q silver caboose with the colorful freight cars.

Mom & Dad figured out pretty quick their oldest was hooked for immortality, and used it to their advantage to teach their kid how to tie his shoelaces! ("You can't watch the trains until you learn to tie your shoes!!" Rotten parents! I buy slip ons now!! LOL!! )

Dad built me a layout when I was six for the Lionels I could roll under the bed, and plug in, a figure eight. OOhhhh that was fun! We moved, and dad would put a piece of plywood up on the pool table, and it was the greatest thing when we got a pair of Atlas switches for the HO.

I built my first layout when I was 13, two 4x8 sheets in an L. It didn't last long, and when I got hitched, and had kids, I worked on rolling stock while I lived in a single wide trailer, then when we got the house, the current layout is number 4 since being here since 1994.

Hey!! WAKE UP!! IT WASN'T THAT BAD!! Thanks TD!!

[ak-milw]

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

[stevechurch2222]

I was 5 years old when I started in model railroading,we had an O Scale layout at home,then when I was 12,I switched to HO Scale until 1986-1988 when I went to N Scale.I then switched back to HO Scale in 1989 and have been in HO Scale ever since then,and have modeled the Milwaukee Road since 1972.

[ThoroughBreed]

Wow, I coulda sworn I posted to this thread a long time ago, but apparently didn't.
So, I was like 6~8 yrs old and got this AHM? train for Christmas, it had a SRR loco and a couple of cars. I can't remember the type of loco though, and I can't find it in AHM's catalog. But have been hooked ever since. It was put on hiatus for a long time, till I was atleast 25, then again till about 2 yrs ago now. But with all the free time I have now, I been going strong. Now I have atleast 100 locos and as many rolling stock, with a few locos still in the shop awaiting assembly and paint. I model modern Norfolk Southern, BNSF, and Southern Pacific (NO UP). I have just about converted all my locos to DCC, and am always working on my layout.
Like most of you, I am also waiting for my daughter to move out so I can expand from a 12 x 14 to a 12 x 28 with helixes and 4 levels of run. I estimate my new mainline to have 143' of run. I have already laid out the new plans, complete with dimensions, and am just waiting, lol.